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Book Review of The Tortilla Curtain

The Tortilla Curtain
The Tortilla Curtain
Author: T.Coraghessan Boyle
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
23dollars avatar reviewed on + 432 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


I read THE TORTILLA CURTAIN for the May 2015 pick in my neighborhood book club.

And what a dank, dreary and depressing book it is! I could never recommend it.

It started off interestingly enough with a white man accidentally running over a Mexican man in the street, giving him $20 and continuing on his way. It wasn't really his fault, the Mexican didn't want any help and barely spoke any English. But then it goes off into their individual stories (one depressing development after another, illustrating that while they were socioeconomically as different as can be, the two were much more alike than they were different) before having them cross paths again in the end for a depressingly washed out finish! Quite literally.

I give this book a C-. I found much of it easily skimmable. The narrative lacked any real focus and basically rendered itself pointless despite the point it apparently tried to make. Meh.